- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books (15 Jan 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1846681782
- ISBN-13: 978-1846681783
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 278,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Lucky Child
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"* 'an extraordinary story... Heartbreaking and thrilling, it examines what it means to be human, in every good and awful sense' Elizabeth McCracken"
Book Description
Thomas Buergenthal is unique. He is a judge at the International Court in The Hague who was rescued from the death camps of Auschwitz at the age of eleven. In his funny and heartfelt memoirs, he tells the story of his extraordinary journey - from the horrors of Nazism to an investigation of modern day genocide.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This amazing and inspiring book is a fine example of choosing one's moment. Whereas some Holocaust survivors wrote their accounts shortly after their ordeal, Thomas Buergenthal waited more than 60 years after the passage of time had blunted his anger and the horrors he had witnessed and experienced. The result is a balanced and enthralling account of a child using all his means to surive the Holocaust.
Thomas, together with his parents, had been on the run from the Nazis since the age of four. He was interned in Auschwitz at the age of 10. During those years he experienced things that no human being should have to experience and especially not a child.
Through his intelligence and resourcefulness, Thomas' father Mundek kept the family together; he shrewdly anticipated when they should flee and how they could best survive. Later during his internment Thomas, was also intelligent and resourceful in his ongoing quest for survival.
In Auschwitz, Thomas' father learned from a friend that a job for Thomas could provide some protection for him. Thomas then became an errand boy, delivering messages and packages for those running the camp. In this way he often happened upon useful information and could go to many places around the camp where others could not.
Yet, Thomas was a lucky child. Many times he missed the dreaded selections either for the gas chamber or becoming one of Dr. Mengele's objects for experimentation. There were also acts of great kindness to him from others, especially from a Norwegian internee .
A particularly moving moment is when he recalls how he briefly saw his mother in the womens' camp and how he repeated their exchange and the picture of her over and over in his mind in the days to come. Even though she had lost her hair she was of course beautiful to him.
Thomas survived the death March from Auschwitz, enduring extreme cold and hunger and losing some toes to frostbite.
After the liberation and spending some time as a mascot for Polish soldiers, including his own tailor made uniform, Thomas was taken to a Jewish orphanage near Warsaw by one of the liberating Polish soldiers who was himself Jewish. Thomas spent a year there until his mother found him. During this time the children received a great deal of warmth, kindness and even education. It was a halfway house between what many had experienced during the Holocaust and to adjust them to a more normal existence.
After Thomas returned to Germany his mother employed a teacher to tutor him so that he could attend school. He had of course had virtually no formal education. This teacher was astonished that although Thomas had very little academic knowledge his level of maturity was way beyond his years. Hardly surprising.
This book is special in that it is an account of a child's experiences during the most terrible of times and yet even in that horrible place where Thomas was forced to live, there were still moments of childish pleasure and acts of great courage by him and others.
Much later Thomas turned to international law and human rights. He is now a judge at the International Court of Justice it would appear that he has created a most positive life.
Do read this book, one can't help but be left with a feeling that in spite of the ugliness to which people can be subjected, the goodness of the human spirit will prevail.
Thomas, together with his parents, had been on the run from the Nazis since the age of four. He was interned in Auschwitz at the age of 10. During those years he experienced things that no human being should have to experience and especially not a child.
Through his intelligence and resourcefulness, Thomas' father Mundek kept the family together; he shrewdly anticipated when they should flee and how they could best survive. Later during his internment Thomas, was also intelligent and resourceful in his ongoing quest for survival.
In Auschwitz, Thomas' father learned from a friend that a job for Thomas could provide some protection for him. Thomas then became an errand boy, delivering messages and packages for those running the camp. In this way he often happened upon useful information and could go to many places around the camp where others could not.
Yet, Thomas was a lucky child. Many times he missed the dreaded selections either for the gas chamber or becoming one of Dr. Mengele's objects for experimentation. There were also acts of great kindness to him from others, especially from a Norwegian internee .
A particularly moving moment is when he recalls how he briefly saw his mother in the womens' camp and how he repeated their exchange and the picture of her over and over in his mind in the days to come. Even though she had lost her hair she was of course beautiful to him.
Thomas survived the death March from Auschwitz, enduring extreme cold and hunger and losing some toes to frostbite.
After the liberation and spending some time as a mascot for Polish soldiers, including his own tailor made uniform, Thomas was taken to a Jewish orphanage near Warsaw by one of the liberating Polish soldiers who was himself Jewish. Thomas spent a year there until his mother found him. During this time the children received a great deal of warmth, kindness and even education. It was a halfway house between what many had experienced during the Holocaust and to adjust them to a more normal existence.
After Thomas returned to Germany his mother employed a teacher to tutor him so that he could attend school. He had of course had virtually no formal education. This teacher was astonished that although Thomas had very little academic knowledge his level of maturity was way beyond his years. Hardly surprising.
This book is special in that it is an account of a child's experiences during the most terrible of times and yet even in that horrible place where Thomas was forced to live, there were still moments of childish pleasure and acts of great courage by him and others.
Much later Thomas turned to international law and human rights. He is now a judge at the International Court of Justice it would appear that he has created a most positive life.
Do read this book, one can't help but be left with a feeling that in spite of the ugliness to which people can be subjected, the goodness of the human spirit will prevail.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is such a brilliant book, I had immediately afterwards to get Odd Nansen's epitome "Day after Day" (a second hand copy was available on the internet) which mentioned his meeting at the camp "hospital" with "Tommy". How the child ever escaped the Nazis death proposals at Aushwitz, I'll never grasp - but he did and became an international lawyer, to boot! It is a book that is simple to read (as no lawyer's Brief is) and is beautifully set up: I will refrain explaining his narrative to avoid the sorrow that the book involves: suffice it to say that his terrible and deadly experience stood him wonderfully well in his eventual profession - it is a pity that most if not all other Judges do not have that colour (black through all to white) life left him with.
Do read it.
Do read it.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Unlike Primo Levi's brilliant book, 'If This Is A Man', which was written through the eyes of an adult, this is a fascinating book written through a child's eyes, but the simplicity of his narrative brings you closer to the reality of The Holocaust than many adults who went through the same experience. There are many sad moments in the book, but also many times when you want to smile or jump with joy along with Thomas as he recalls such gems as being a 'soldier' in the Polish army, firing the only round in a rusty pistol and being re-united with his dear 'Mutti'. Also, he reveals the heroism of many around him and the love they gave to him which helped him through his terrible ordeal. At times, I shed a few tears for them as well as for Thomas. One of the things I found most poignent about this book were the numerous photographs that helped me relate to Thomas and his family and friends. I will be visiting Aushwitz/Birkenhau (for the second time) in May 2009 and I will take the book with me as a tribute to Thomas and for his many relatives and friends who were not 'A Lucky Child'. The title is a paradox, but an understandable one when you have read this brilliant book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this awful moment in the history of mankind.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Powerful true account by a boy who survived against the odds
This is a remarkable story, a real page turner & cannot be faulted because it is a true account of the holocaust through the eyes of a young boy. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Nadia
Unforgettable
A short but powerful account of the author's childhood in Auschwitz, his time in a Polish ghetto beforehand, and subsequent life. Read more
Published 4 months ago by James from Bath
A "must read"
This is a thoroughly inspiring book of one boy's survival against the odds. I bought this book after I attended a talk by Thomas Buergenthal at the Hay Festival in Wales. Read more
Published 8 months ago by I. Reddek
A Lucky Child: A Memoir of surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy
An absolute MUST read. This book provides a great insight into a jewish life during the war through the eyes of a child and how sometimes fate just lands on your doorstep and gives... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Scottie
A real child hero
The title of this book will become clearer the more that you read, at every turn of his holocaust experience Thomas manages to survive when it seems almost impossible. Read more
Published on 24 May 2010 by H. NORTH
An amazing read
This book is amazing -- an essential read. Thomas Buergenthal has not let hindsight colour his picture of the past, but tells his story with insight and detachment. Read more
Published on 26 April 2010 by J. Clare
Harrowing
A harrowing story but ultimately a story of the best aspects of humanity prevailing over the worst aspects of humanity.
Published on 9 Mar 2010 by Mr. S. N. Cubitt
An inspirational read
Never before in my 53 years have I started to read a book and not been able to put it down until I finished it - but this book changed that. Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2010 by Alan Wingrove
The Power of the Human Spirit
How this young boy had the mental strength to overcome the atrocities he was faced with, I'll never know. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2009 by Dee McCarthy
An unwilling reader's review
I didn't want to read this book. It was required reading selected by a member of my book group. Nonetheless I settled down to it and was amazed to find I enjoyed it ! Read more
Published on 1 May 2009 by Social Reader
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